With the national focus on alleged sexual misconduct by high-profile men, is it possible for a man charged with sex trafficking to get a fair shake?

That’s the unusual question being posed by attorneys for Benjamin Biancofiori, who cited the #MeToo movement in asking a federal judge in Chicago to postpone Biancofiori’s upcoming trial on charges alleging he used death threats, vicious beatings and other abuse to force women into sexual servitude.

Biancofiori is hardly a household name, but the seven-page motion sought to draw a link between his case and allegations against movie producer Harvey Weinstein and the cascade of male celebrities that followed, from Kevin Spacey to Matt Lauer.

“In view of the extraordinary attention to and enflamed (sic) societal passion on the subject of male sexual misconduct, Mr. Biancofiori cannot hope to select a jury that is untainted by the veritable flood of reporting on the subject,” Biancofiori’s attorney, Andrea Gambino, wrote in her recent motion.

In asking U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber to delay a trial scheduled to begin Monday, Gambino said she needed more time to fashion a questionnaire that would identify potential jurors who have participated in the #MeToo movement or may be prejudiced by “their own individual experiences with male sexual misconduct.”

She also cited the intense media coverage of the marathon sentencing hearing for former Michigan State University doctor Larry Nassar, who admitted to sexually abusing dozens of young women — including Olympic gymnasts — under the guise of medical treatment.

Gambino declined to comment Tuesday. The U.S. attorney’s office has yet to respond to the requested delay. Leinenweber is scheduled to hear the motion Thursday, records show.

Whatever the judge decides, court records show that a potentially biased jury pool is just one of Biancofiori’s problems.

His lawyers are also trying to keep federal prosecutors from introducing as evidence a 124-page handwritten manifesto on pimping that was seized from Biancofiori's apartment after his arrest in 2016 in Colorado.

Gambino has described the document as an “incomplete work of fiction” and said it would be extremely prejudicial if it were allowed in the trial.

In the document, Biancofiori wrote in thinly veiled autobiographical style about what it takes to be a good pimp — a businessman he described as “a distinctive character with an exceptional intellect who possesses the ability to deal with the most difficult tasks with ease,” prosecutors said in their motion filed last month.

A good pimp, Biancofiori wrote, “has the power to bring out the best in the worst kind of women, whereas most men cant even control one woman,” according to the prosecution filing.

He also detailed how he traveled the country with the women he trafficked, setting up sex ads on classified websites and “makin’ money in no time,” according to prosecutors.

In one section, Biancofiori wrote how he stopped in Pittsburgh with a victim for a weekend, adding that if she “even gave (him) a look” he didn’t like he “was knocking her across the room,” prosecutors said.

In her motion asking Leinenweber to keep the jury from seeing the manuscript, Gambino said that he began writing the “novel” while doing a stint in prison on an unrelated case and that while some of it was based on Biancofiori’s life experiences, the vast majority of the events depicted are fictitious.

“His audience was himself and a select group of his fellow prisoners,” Gambino wrote. “An individual’s unpublished manuscript, clearly intended to be a novel or other work of fiction, is the embodiment of an individual’s ‘private inner sanctum of individual feeling and thought.’ ”

At least three alleged victims are expected to testify that Biancofiori, 38, ran a lucrative sex trafficking business out of his Naperville townhouse.

A 33-page complaint filed in May 2016 portrayed Biancofiori as relishing the punishment he handed out to the women he trafficked. One victim told authorities he frequently pummeled another woman while dressed up like a boxer with a black hooded shirt over his head and mixed martial arts-type fingerless gloves with hard plastic knuckles, according to the charges.

Court records show that several of the alleged victims have a history of prostitution and drug arrests — a fact that prosecutors are seeking to keep Gambino from raising at trial. At least two of the women Biancofiori is alleged to have abused also had a romantic relationship with him at one time, court filings in the case show.

Biancofiori, who has been jailed without bond since his arrest, faces up to life in prison if convicted. Two of his alleged associates are also facing charges, court records show.

The sex trafficking charges were just the latest in a two-decade string of alleged criminal activity for Biancofiori.

In 2016, the Tribune detailed in a front-page article how Biancofiori, a reputed west suburban gang member, was given a stunning second chance two decades ago after a Wheaton teenager he’d robbed and beaten, David Kinkley, committed suicide by stepping in front of a train.

Even in the face of the horrific tragedy, Kinkley’s parents pushed for leniency. Biancofiori, then 18, was given just six months in jail — a saga of compassion and forgiveness that was featured in the Tribune and in a later episode of "The Oprah Winfrey Show."

Kinkley’s mother, Marianne, told the Tribune at the time she and her husband struggled with forgiveness but genuinely cared about Biancofiori's future and feared that spending time in prison amid its rampant gang culture would harden him.

"We asked, 'What's wrong with this picture?' " she said. "It made zero sense to me. In that situation, what was going to keep this kid from eventually doing this to another family?"

Despite his good fortune, Biancofiori didn't straighten out his life. Court records show he amassed a series of arrests in the years after Kinkley's death, culminating with an 18-month stint in prison for a 2011 gun conviction.

Federal prosecutors alleged that Biancofiori began his sex trafficking operation a short time after his release.

In the beginning, Biancofiori, who went by the nickname “Beanz,” would accompany his victims to motel rooms and other locations where they met clients for sex, waiting in a car outside to collect the cash they were paid. He gave the women only a small fraction of what they earned, sometimes paying only in heroin, according to the charges.

He recruited women through a Facebook page littered with testaments to Biancofiori's gangster lifestyle, including photos of him posing next to luxury cars and wearing expensive jewelry. One video depicted him dropping $100 bills on the floor while rap music played in the background.

His profile also celebrated his affinity for the tattoos that adorn nearly his entire body. One tattoo across his neck reads, in script, "Power in Motivating People." Another on his abdomen says, "Play for Keeps."

In May 2016, just a week before his arrest, a shirtless Biancofiori posted a photo of himself giving the middle finger to the camera with the caption "(Expletive) the law."

On his finger was a ring that spelled out "MOB" — standing for "money over bitches," prosecutors said — in diamonds.

According to the charges, shortly after Biancofiori got the ring, he asked all the girls who worked for him, "Who is the first one that wants to get this imprinted on their face?"

A few days later, Biancofiori followed through on his threat, the complaint alleged.